Cross Country Seventh at Regionals

MADISON, Conn. - The Yale women's cross country team fought their way back to the top with a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Northeast Regional meet on Friday. The team cemented its status as a regional powerhouse and ended the season on a positive upswing after placing fifth at Heps. Four of the Bulldogs placed among the first 50 finishers, and all seven were within the fastest 100 of the 253 competitors.

Junior Liana Epstein paced the Bulldogs in 25th place, moving up several spots within the last half of the race to finish in 20:42.9. A pack of Yale runners separated by only two seconds was next: senior captain Nihal Kayali was 42nd (21:03.1), freshman Emily Stark was 44th (21:03.3) and senior Elizabeth Marvin was 49th (21:05.6). Senior Caitlin Hudson was right on their heels in 55th (21:17.8) to round out Yale's scoring positions. Freshman Anna Demaree (85th - 21:48.6) and sophomore Kira Garry (96th - 21:58.9) also competed for the Bulldogs.

Providence claimed the team title with 46 points; their team put four runners in the top 10 to secure the win. Connecticut was runner-up with 67 points, followed by Ivy champ Cornell (118 points) and Harvard (150 points). Boston College was fifth with 150 points, Syracuse was sixth with 167 points and Yale was just behind with 215 points. Brown collected 223 points to finish eighth while Columbia was only three behind in ninth. Dartmouth's Abbey D'Agostino repeated her 2011 individual title, finishing in 19:51.1 to lead her team to 10th-place (234 points).

Regionals marks the end of the season for the Bulldogs. The cross country runners will take some time off to rest before jumping into indoor track season this winter.